“Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy?”
Please watch this short piece by Hala Alyan.
Full Transcript:
Have you ever felt like you had to audition for empathy? Like you had to prove that you or your community deserve compassion?
In the last few weeks, I’ve watched Palestinians from all walks of life try to prove they deserve humanity.
I’ve watched them beg for fair news coverage, get interrupted or silenced on air. I’ve watched them create infographics, summarize history, organize teach-ins to try to earn solidarity for thousands and thousands of dead, innocent civilians.
As of this morning, over 10,000. Over 4,000 children killed. An estimated 1,000 more under rubble. I’ve watched the very number of their dead be questioned.
I don’t hesitate for a second to condemn the killing of any innocent life, any civilian. This, of course, includes Jewish life. This, of course, includes October 7. It includes every day before that, it includes every day since.
Condemning innocent killings is the easiest ask in the world.
And that’s exactly why I say: condemn brutal acts, condemn murder, condemn oppression, condemn violence, condemn war crimes, condemn human rights violations, and notice if it feels harder to condemn these things when they happen to certain people, certain lives, certain communities.
The reality is we are all brought up within narratives about the world and our place in it. None of us are immune to that. Our responsibility is to hold those narratives up to the light, to interrogate them, to see where we might be often unintentionally, often subconsciously, engaging in the dehumanization of other people.
What do you believe about who deserves to be protected?
Who deserves to be mourned? Who deserves to be believed?
Whose deaths, whose loses, whose griefs are framed in passive language spoken of as inevitable, seen as necessary or permissible?
The task of radical empathy is to sit with these questions both for ourselves and for people with less power and agency than us. It’s difficult work for all of us but more necessary than ever.
What a comedic farce when Israel is screaming about #antisemitism and then invites Elon Musk over to ensure he cuts off Starlink to aid workers in Palestine so they can continue on completing a genocide. I am sure as an apartheid emerald mine trust fund baby he feels right at home alongside the prison of Gaza.
Chi è responsabile del deterioramento della nave di soccorso Iuventa? https://www.meltingpot.org/2023/11/chi-e-responsabile-del-deterioramento-della-nave-di-soccorso-iuventa/ #Solidarietàeattivismo #Mediterraneocentrale #DecretoPiantedosi #ProcessoaIuventa #OperazioniSAR #Redazione #Notizie #Sicilia #Trapani #Italia
Hey folks!
Please do NOT report artists for sharing links to where their art is available to purchase!
Just DO NOT be such a jerk!
If you want artists to keep sharing their work on mastodon, this whole "absolute no commercial posts at all" attitude has to stop. There is a huge difference between a big corporate ad campaign and an individual artist posting a link to their own art shop.
Edit/Update: Well, this blew up. I'm muting now, and won't see replies.
“The city is poised to require owners of vehicles weighing over 6000 pounds to pay an annual $500 vehicle registration fee, almost 7X the cost to register a modest sedan. No other US jurisdiction has created such a forceful financial disincentive against the biggest, heaviest car models.” Via @davidzipper
"Non sappiamo chi sia a percorrere questa strada, ma sappiamo che sono più eroici dei 300 di Sparta.
Per loro e per tutte continua l’attivismo di Efesta, fino a quando potremo girare in ogni strada senza paura."
Today, the atmospheric carbon dioxide readings from Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the acid test of how the world is succeeding in combatting climate change, is 422.36 parts per million.
That is 5.06ppm more than the same day last year. That rise in 12 months is probably the largest ever recorded – more than double the last decade’s annual average.
After 27 annual meetings of the convention, all the efforts of nearly 200 member states to tackle the menace of the climate crisis have been a failure, so far.
#climateChange #climateCatastrophy #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint
... cerca di dominare in sé stesso l’istinto al combattimento, l’inconscio hitlerismo. […] Dobbiamo fare felicità. Dobbiamo tirarlo fuori dalla sua prigione, all’aperto». Parole pericolose: capaci di mettere in dubbio la determinazione della scrittrice nel combattere il nazismo. Eppure, parole altissime di chi diceva di non avere, come donna, alcuna patria, se non il mondo intero. Di chi rifiutava la logica stessa delle armi, dello schierarsi, dell’uccidere o morire....
https://volerelaluna.it/commenti/2023/10/17/israele-la-palestina-e-il-razzismo-della-pelle-bianca/
COOL! The spicy article I wrote about satellite pollution is FINALLY published! "Bright satellites are disrupting astronomy research worldwide" in Nature News & Views.
This article required weeks of back-and-forth with the editor, the editor-in-chief, and Nature's lawyers, so I hope that means it's a good one.
During this process, I learned that satellite companies are so powerful and litigious that even giant publishers like Nature are terrified of getting sued. Which is...rather worrying.
C'è una vera e propria omertà di massa rispetto a questa semplice verità: salvo rare eccezioni, di norma polizia e carabinieri passano la giornata a bere caffè al bar e chiacchierare in ufficio, nessuno li controlla, nessuno li punisce per il livello infimo del loro lavoro, e siccome lavorano quando gli pare e su ciò che gli interessa, essendo quasi tutti dei gretti fascisti l'ultima cosa che vogliono fare è occuparsi di violenza sulle donne, che non pochi di loro praticano in prima persona.
Nell'ora precedente il ridicolo minuto di silenzio voluto dal ridicolo ministro per Cecchettin, abbiamo provato a ricostruire un po' in classe il contesto generale in cui fatti di questo tipo nascono e si sviluppano.
Una ragazza ci ha raccontato un'esperienza che mi ha colpito molto e a fatica, lì per lì, sono riuscito a contenermi.
Dopo la morte di Giulia, i genitori hanno cominciato a farle dei discorsi del tipo "se ti fidanzi stai attenta", oppure "se alza le mani, ce lo devi dire subito" ecc.
Ieri, per caso, ha ascoltato di nascosto sua madre parlare al telefono, sentendole dire che a sua figlia ha "insegnato ad avere paura del mondo". Sentita questa frase, la ragazza è scoppiata a piangere.
Non so se esistano immagini più vivide del fallimento di questa società ormai al capolinea.
@utentone puoi elaborare un po' sul fork di Tusky che vorresti provassi?
Oh mi raccomando, tutti a strapparsi le vesti al prossimo test nordcoreano o russo.
https://www.ilpost.it/2023/11/19/francia-test-missile-nucleare/
Physicist, scientific software developer, bike commuter, mechanic and advocate, pythonista, antifascist. Not necessarily in that order. European in Tokyo.
Former board of FIAB Trento bike advocacy and activist of Ciclostile bike kitchen.
ALT avatar: a head with messy hair that has taken the shape of a bike helmet.
ALT background: two bikes on the beach at sunset.